Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

I took the kids out for our usual three-mile loop around the parks, over the (steep!) bridge, around the farm (this walk is known as “where the cows and horsies are” and requested under such a title), and back home along the bicycle path (a paved strip running through pasture, complete with cow barriers and elegant lamposts to light the way in the evening).  It was raining and quite windy, so Katherine decided she’d be riding the whole way today.  At the farthest point out, I suddenly got a flat tire (thorn?), so I got to shove the remaining mile home.  Can’t say it helped with the Christmas spirit, but I’m trying to be grateful that it happened while Sydney’s still home (he leaves on Monday for a week), that I had the arm and shoulder strength to get us home (adrenaline helps, apparently), that the kids weren’t fussy, and that it didn’t happen later, when the rain turned into a downpour.

Erin

Yesterday Katherine discovered a small donkey figure inside her Advent cone, after which I took the kids out for a walk downtown.  One of the area churches had advertised they would be bringing in a real donkey, so we were out to find it.  I put Nathaniel in the backpack and had Katherine walk alongside me, and both kids did really well.  We went in an out of stores and walked all over the city centre as we waited for the donkey, and, when it appeared, Katherine promptly instructed me to pet it.  I think she regretted not petting it herself once she was back home (“Ka’frine pet donkey!”), but it still seems to have made an impression on her.  Just my luck, she’ll think that the donkey is the focus of the Christmas story . . .

Nathaniel is teething pretty badly right now, and has rewarded his father’s return from Germany by giving him the cold shoulder.  The babe currently wants to be carried in my arms all day long.  Oh well.  We’re hoping that things ease up a bit before the weekend.  When Katherine isn’t busy tipping him over (why, oh why?), he and she get along really well.  Her busyness often distracts him from his hurting teeth, and they have been playing hide-and-seek from one another a few times a day.  He’s also taking more and more steps between furniture, and I’m wondering how long it will be before he abandons caution and strikes out after his sister, who is already a bit discomfited by how much he can reach.

We also had several wonderful surprises today: presents from friends arrived in the mail, and our neighbors appeared on our doorstep with Christmas cookies.  I have not abandoned the Christmas spirit, but my efforts were pretty minimal as I ran after both kids this last week, so this was a wonderful boost to my holiday spirit.

Erin

My fishing line finally arrived in the mail, so we decorated Katherine’s room with snowflakes.  She giggles when they turn due to a draft (or strenuous huffing and puffing on our parts), and I like the patterned shadows they make on the wall.  Sydney probably wonders why I had to hang things on an already too-low ceiling.

Erin

This might be the first trip in a long time for which we didn’t send Sydney off sick or get him back sick, so we’re very grateful.  We have him for about a week-and-a-half before we send him off again, so we’re going to enjoy him while he’s here.

Erin

Feeding one little bird inevitably incites hunger in the other, so I’ve started lining the kids up in chairs and spooning food into one mouth, and then the other.  This has some good consequences: if I can get one to take a bit of whatever’s on offer, the second one will join in even if he or she has doubts about the taste.

In her best moments, Katherine is a hilarious co-conspirator in introducing Nathaniel to new foods.  She leans over, gives him a bright smile, and says in an over-the-top encouraging voice, “Num, num.  Num, num, baby?  Mmmm.  Food.  Good.  Good boy, ‘thaniel.”  He loves it, but is then a bit too distracted to focus on the food.  In their worse moments, both kids lay on the guilt trip when I turn the spoon away from them: Katherine’s face clouds over, and she adopts a sullen pout, and Nathaniel gives me a look of bewildered dismay when he sees the spoon pass him by.

Erin

Less than a day after submitting my finished dissertation, I got an email letting me know that it passed format review, and that three of my four advisors had already signed off on it.  So . . . I think I’m going to graduate in January!  I did a little dance (much to the amusement of my children) and then started thinking about what I want to do to turn it into a book.

Sydney, it’s time to come home, hon.  I think I’ve perfected my variation on the pumpkin scones: triple the pecans, double the raisins, replace most of the butter with applesauce, and add the zest and juice of one lemon.  Delicious.

Erin

Today has been muuuuuch better than yesterday, with sleep for all, non-picky eaters, and a nice morning walk in the park.  Given that the local groceries are filling their freezers with turkeys, rather than fruit, I took the opportunity to go English and order groceries online; they’ll be dropped off tomorrow afternoon.

Katherine has asked after Sydney a time or two, though she seemed reassured when I told her that he would return before the baby Jesus is born.  Today I pointed out which Advent cone marked the day when Sydney would come back.  I’ll have to remember that for future (non-Advent-season) trips: visual reminders like that really help little kids to mark the passing days, so that Dadas don’t get marked as “gone” in the same way that the good pacifier, the ninth rubber duck, and the letter “L” are gone . . .

Erin

. . . and then there are days like this one.  Katherine made ominous thumping sounds and shrieks all through Nathaniel’s naptime, and he started awake with a howl just after she finally got to sleep.  So much for napping.  We’re all recovering our good humors after some early-morning Nathaniel fusiness,  but the process may take us all day. Oh well.  I think it may end with some delicious rolls, so that’s some compensation!

Erin

Sydney has been a bit worried about leaving for his conferences, since I have been really struggling with fatigue recently, but thus far things are going smoothly.

Nathaniel has been sleeping really lightly when he naps, so Sydney’s been working from home, resting a hand on the little guy whenever Nathaniel stirs, and typing or reading when he doesn’t.  Although it would be nice to simply hand him over to someone whenever he needs to nap, thus far I’ve been able to coordinate things such that I could snuggle on the couch with the little guy while Katherine napped and after she went to bed . . . with my computer in hand.  So both kids got their sleep and I got a bit of work and quiet time to energize me for the next round.  Yes, we know, he has to sleep on his own.  We’re working on it, but this is the best we can do for the moment.  And he is a great cuddler!

Katherine has been asserting herself recently with food and song choices, picking A and then changing her mind to B, then back again.  You can guess how much we like this.  As we edged toward bedtime today, though, she seemed to realize that, having chosen hummus over pasta, she would be stuck with her choice, and she nicely wolfed it down so that I wouldn’t have to put her to bed without supper.  Nathaniel has been wanting liquids all day, frustrating my attempts to feed him solid food, but he just made up for it in this last meal: a few ounces of pasta, roasted squash, and yogurt.  I know, it doesn’t sound appealing to me, either, but it’s the combo that finally went down.

This evening I took the kids to a Christmas market at the Oxford Castle.  I didn’t want to buy any Christmas crafts, but I did want to take advantage of the opportunity to get out with the kids after it got dark (the parks now close at 4pm, so we hit them in the morning), and to see some Christmas lights.  Katherine has been reading about a knight in a castle, so it was fun to walk through one with her, cold as it is outside.  Nathaniel has inherited the fluffy bear suit we put in Katherine at that age, so he’s now a warm, sleepy bear whenever we go outside.  Katherine says “Awwwwww!” whenever I put him in it.

Erin

I embarrassed an Englishman the other day.  An Englishwoman, actually.  I’d been standing next to a stunning blonde in choir for a few weeks, and Tuesday, when we were all dolled up for our dress rehearsal, she looked amazing, and I told her so.  Given that it was clear she spends some time on her appearance, I assumed she had some idea how she looked, but I was surprised to find that she responded with the same kind of bashful English mumble that you get from random guys on the street when you bump into them.  When she said something about not even her husband thinking such things, it was all I could do not to inform her that she was either wrong or married to an idiot.  It isn’t that the English don’t do compliments: Katherine has been told that her coloring/playing/throwing is “Simply brilliant!” or, the current favorite, “Brill!” ever since we got here, so I thought that compliments that make the American roll her eyes were the norm, and I was almost worried about coming off as lukewarm when I wanted to offer one.  What a strange place.  You are supposed to run around telling people they’re absolutely brilliant, and then they’re supposed to mutter incomprehensibly and shuffle their feet in response.  Oh well.  The stunning blonde still looked happy at the compliment, once she’d gotten through her mumble, so I’ll just keep on as I am.  And if you hear me say “Brilliant!” feel free to give me a hard time.

I’m doing the last tweaking of my dissertation before sending it in, and I’m running into trouble with the formatting guidelines.  Things are going along quite smoothly until I see that I’m being warned to make my dissertation title “keyword-search-friendly.”  I’m in English, the home of the pun, the double entendre, the metaphor, the simile, and the allusion.  This instruction made me want to go back and make my title completely uncategorizable by Google.  I’ll settle by leaving the pun in my title and ignoring the helpful hints.  I can’t say I really want anyone to find my dissertation, anyway!

Sydney is currently in Sheffield, having taken an early train up from Oxford.  The kids and I are doing just fine thus far.

Erin